1. Larry Peters
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Thursday, 30 January 2020 01:32 AM UTC

Hi. The Appeon Newsletter 2020 in January made the following comment:

Oracle Compatibility Alert for PowerBuilder Users
Existing versions of PowerBuilder are not compatible with Oracle 18c or 19c. If you are using PowerBuilder 2019, please apply MR # 2170 released on January 6, 2020. If you are using an older version of PowerBuilder, please first upgrade to PowerBuilder 2019 and then apply MR # 2170.

My app connects with Oracle using the Oracle ODBC driver. What incompatibility should I be aware of? Surely if I am NOT using the PowerBuilder native driver should I have no issue?

Any comments are very welcome.

Larry

Accepted Answer
Larry Peters Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 30 January 2020 02:55 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # Permalink

Thanks Chris.

Does this mean that if I am using Oracle ODBC driver I am "on my own" connectivity & functionality wise even when using Appeon 2019 build 2170?

Or am I "required" to adopt the native Oracle DB driver so as to partake of the comfort level?

Best Regards

Larry

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  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Thursday, 30 January 2020 20:10 PM UTC
Hi Larry;

Appeon typically focuses our testing on "native" DBMS drivers. ODBC is part of a group of software that the IT industry calls "middle-ware". In the case of ODBC, you have some Microsoft code plus the DBMS vendors code (ODBC driver) running in the middle between your PB (or any App - C#, Delphi, C++, Python, etc) and the DBMS. Appeon does test the ODBC "interface" PB driver for ODBC "compliance" however, it does not test the DBMS vendor's drivers that sit between the ODBC "Manager" and the DBMS itself.

Your situation is more complicated because of using "middle-ware" - in this case ODBC. PB wants to efficiently convert a PBSelect into a native ANSI based DML commands for the DBMS its connected to. However, at run-time, it will see that your using ODBC and then generate "ODBC SQL" format instead. .The ODBC layer then hands the ODBC SQL to its Oracle DB driver who then converts the ODBC SQL to PL-SQL (in your case). On the way back from the DBMS, PB normally expects a binary result set (in the DBMS's flavour). However, the Oracle RS, is sent back to the ODBC/Oracle driver, who in turn converts this into an ODBC result set format. The ODBC Manager in turn, hands that to the ODBC driver & PB DB interface - which in turns converts the ODBC result set into a proper ANSI format (which PB was expecting from any DBMS in the first place. So in the long & short of it, any "middle-ware" DB connection will never be as DML robust or performance minded as a native driver. So you may have to refactor some of of your App's SQL because of this "middle-ware" architecture. Then its important to thoroughly test your App(s) for performance changes.

Regards ... Chris
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Chris Pollach @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 30 January 2020 02:29 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

Hi Larry;

  Yes, previous builds of PB2017 & 2019 could work with O18C and/or O19C. However, they were unsupported. Meaning that you would be "on your own" connectivity & functionality wise. Now with these recent MR releases, this means that Appeon has added native DB driver / feature support for O18C & O19C and most importantly, these builds have been through an O18C/O19C  quality assurance cycle. Because of this, Appeon now "officially" supports these Oracle releases product wise should you encounter an anomaly.

HTH

Regards ... Chris 

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